Pretty does as pretty is
By RAYMOND LOWERY staff writer
A glance at the likeness of Olivia Newton-John is enough to convince anyone that this well-favored English lass could make it on looks alone (her picture on If Not for You (Uni), her debut album, is twice as cute as the one accompanying this column).
Amazingly, she can sing too softly, smoothly and quite emotionally. Peggy Lee-ishly. She sings in a jazz-country style contemporary American songs such as Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” Dylan’s “If Not for You,” Lightfoot’s “If I Could Read Your Mind,” and other eclectic delights.
She receives professional help throughout from a group of studio musicians seemingly in spired by her striking good looks.
The engineers, unhappily, were so distracted that they often let the strings come on too strong. But this is no drawback to what is essentially a genuinely lovely album.